Lion Rampant

Over the last few months I have been looking at a number of changes in how I wargame. Most of my collections are large. Unfortunately over the last few months many of my regular wargame buddies are unavailable due to moving out of the area or work impacting upon availability. So the last few games have been smaller than normal. It made me think about skirmish style gaming but I still wanted the ability to play larger games, if and when we all can get together again.

Recently I picked up a number of Osprey rules sets. Some look good and not so sure of but have onky had a quick scan of them.

Last night I met up with a gamer from Exmouth and we started to discuss Lion Rampant. They were a set of rules he had but again had never played so we decided to have a walk through to see if they may offer what we want.

Overall the rules seem to be ok and while they appear simple they may take a while to master. The easy of play will allow addition of house rules if and when needed to reflect a particlar era.

We got discussing 2 areas that didn’t feel right.

• Challenges – like the idea but the process of rolling 3 dice and the highest number of 5 or 6s win. It appears to take no consideration of armour etc. We set about trying a number of option to give what we think would be a more reflective result. We came up with the following:

3 dice as original

3 rounds and the leader with the most hits on them at the end is dead

To hit a general, roll 3 dice needing to roll as if attacking

Any leader hit rolls armour rating or less to save each hit

Leader who has most hits inflicted upon them each round gets a -1 to attack rolls(accumalative) up to needing 6s

• The other thing that jumped out was that all foot units not knights or serfs all have the skill of schiltron. I think I allow certain foot not to have this ability i.e. my English spears fighting their Scottish equivalents at Stirling.

We are planning to try the rules out with figures on the table in a few weeks time.

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Legionary 2015 2nd May 2015

The day of the show.

I was up and pack by 6.30am for the drive to the show. Left home at 7.00am and arrived at 7.08am. Hung around till 7.30 when the show organisers turned up. (Must read invite).

The show venue is great. Plenty of free parking and all on the level. In fact as I was one of the first to arrive I was allowed to drive into the venue and park next to the table to help unloading. The other great benefit is that they also have access to a professionally run café. So once I had set up and then the  others turned up, we went for breakfast.

Traders

There were a very good selection of traders.

One in particular that convinced me to part with some money was Charlie Foxtrot Models http://www.charliefoxtrotmodels.com/

Having sold my Grand Manner builds of Cartentan to fund the War of The Roses collection I was either in the market place for some alternatives that were hopefully cheaper, lighter to carry  and less fragile or sell my WW2 28mm collection including my Dad’s Army troops.

Well Charlie Foxtrot models offered me the solution. A  vast selection of models are already available and having had a discussion with the owner regarding future releases, he confirmed plans for at least a School, funeral parlour and many more ideas.  Please check out their website. http://www.charliefoxtrotmodels.com/   it is really good and offers tutorials on assembly etc.

The Game 

The game was based around the forces involved at Bosworth.

The boys from Plymouth, Brian and Laurie turned up and along with Nathan they selected the forces they were to command.  Nathan taking the Yorkist force while Brian and Laurie commander the Tudor force. I have to admit that it was at this time we decided that the Stanley forces of Sir William and Thomas would be for show. They can be seen below skirting the edge of the far river bank.

Both side started to advance towards each other and the first to engage were Oxford’s mounted knights against Surrey’s knights. This melee ebbed and flowed for a while until Surrey reinforced the melee. This opened up the Tudor left flank and forced Oxford on to the defensive. Surrey’s troops continued to advance and engaged Archers, Billmen and dismounted knights finally fighting all the way to Oxford himself where he was heroically dragged from his mount and killed.

This put pressure on the Tudor centre which was taking casualties. Shrewsbury tried to turn his troops to support his army’s centre but too late.

Henry was hunted down and killed.

VICTORY TO RICHARD III.

Summary.

Everybody including gamers and viewers seemed to enjoy the game and the rules sparked a bit of interest. With a 1000+ troops on the table it played really well. We did change a few aspects of the rules afterwards and I will publish an updated version later this week.

I apologise for the quality of some of the shots but for some reason the normally reliable camera seemed to be playing up on the day. WSS and Wargame Illustrated were both at the show so hopefully they may publish some better shots of the game.

Below are some shots of the figures involved:

The Table top 12×5 with all the forces deployed

Richard III’s battle

More of Richard’s Battle

 

Norfolk’s Battle. These troops are his son’s The Earl of Surrey

Oxford’s Battle

View down the Tudor battle lines

 

Tudor’s Battle with supplies cart.

Shrewsbury’s battle

 

Shrewsbury’s Battle

Shrewsbury starts to advance

Richard’s troops advance towards Henry’s

 

 

Richard’s battle coming to grips with henry Tudor’s forces holding the central ground

Surrey’s dismounted men at arms start to steam roller through Oxford’s troops.

 

Both sides are moving up to engage

 

Northumberland’s troops close down on Henry in a similar way to Richard was hunted down in real life!

Ricard’s supply wagon provides much needed ammo to Surrey’s gun.

Surrey’s troop engage Oxford’s billmen.

Oxford supporting his archers who have been contacted by Surrey’s Men at Arms. The Tudor left flank after a strong start, starts to break up. This is a desperate last chance.

 

Northumberland’s troops start to advance again, protected! by Burgundian handgunners.

William and Thomas Stanley’s troops

Thomas Stanley ventures across the bridge

Surrey’s troops looking across towards their target, Oxford.

Shrewsbury starts to swing his troops to support the Tudor centre. Too late to save the day though!

 

War of the Roses Wargame Rules- Record Sheet

Here is the next instalment for the Are You Being Serfed rules, a record sheet.

This should keep the need to have any reference markers etc. on the table to a minimum. The only exception being possibly reload markers for artillery.

For this we use the arrow clumps from the Perry box sets placed behind the base and remove one for each reload actioned.

 

Pretty self-explanatory but any issues drop me a line.

Below you will find a pdf version and an Excel version for you to edit if you wish.

Copy of AYBS Record sheet

Copy of AYBS Record sheet Excel

 

Sample Army Lists for War of the Roses rules AYBS.

Quick update.

As promised, I said I would add some army style lists.

Please take them in the style they were intended. If you don’t like something change it and if

you think something is missing please add it.

I will do the record sheets next.

Random War of the Roses Army Generator

Fed up with balanced games or knowing exactly what you are going to command because you have priced it up to the last point. If so then accept the challenge and throw caution to the wind.

As promised, I have developed a way to generate random armies for you to command or defeat.

While aimed at my rules AYBS recently published on this blog, please feel free to amend the cards to represent any other era or rules you like.

I have done versions for Peninsula War , ECW and AWI eras. I am currently working on versions for ACW and WW2.

Hope you enjoy them.

WOTR Random army generator

War of the Roses Rules – Are You Being Serfed? or I’m free, At least For The Moment

Sorry it has been a while but I am just recovering from flu. No, not man flu but real flu. It floored me for over a week.

Even though I have been feeling better for about a week it still sapped me of any enthusiasm.

What I have done to get back into the flow is to work on the rules we will be using for the demo game I am putting on at legionary on the 2nd May 2015.

If you have looked at any of the other rule sets we use, you will soon become familiar with the processes.

I make no apologies for them.  I believe they will give a fast and fun game. We are going to have in the region of 40+ units, 800+ figures on the table and with possibly only 2 players they need to be.

In the next few weeks I will add some more supporting paperwork for record keeping and I am also working on a random army generator so should also have some army lists. In the meantime here are the rules, I hope you enjoy them.

I have read through them a couple of time so I hope they make as much sense to you as they do to me. They do not cover every eventuality but if you enjoy these types of rules then it will not be an issue for you to work it out with the rest of the players. These are to have a laugh with but give a good sense of play. If you are a player who plays to the rules rather than the spirit of a game, please avoid them like the plague.

If you have any questions please drop me a line.

AYBS rules

Another War of the Roses update

A bit of a push on over the weekend.

Below are some shots of some more units I finished over the weekend.

Scots or French mercenary pike block

These are mainly Old Glory figures with a few Foundry in the front rank.

Perry Wagons

One of the house rules I have added is the ability for units to run low on ammo. This add a -1 on their ability to hit. I decided it would look good on the table to have some sort of ammo resupply. So if these carts are moved next to a low on ammo unit they may restock on arrows etc.

I have given the wagoner an outfit in a battles livery colour without any specific badges.

Henry Holland, 3rd Duke of Exeter (27 June 1430 – September 1475)

As I stated in an Earlier blog I had to do a mounted command version. well here he is. These are Foundry figures with a home made flag. All I have left to do is the basing.

Think I need a week off painting.